Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB
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I'm in the midst of a search for a new job after fighting some burnout at my current one. One of the possibilities that I have been presented with is some Ops work for a company that rhymes with Pewlett Hackard (E). I have only ever worked in the SMB, and I have enjoyed quite a bit of leeway and freedom. I have enjoyed doing a lot of different things rather than specializing. I'm curious if any of you who have worked in larger organizations would have any feedback on your experiences and what were the pluses and minuses compared to SMB structures (or lack thereof).
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Overall I find the enterprise to generally be far superior. Not entirely, just overall. Typically pay is better, stress is lower, you aren't on call 24x7, but yes, you tend to have to specialize, at least to some degree.
Often there is more freedom rather than less, but there is more work, too. But there are people to rely on, internal resources for growth, and so forth.
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It is all trade offs, of course. It's not that one is clearly better, and every individual company is very different.
I've worked for two Fortune 10s and both were totally awesome.
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A big factor is the team that you end up on. Really big companies like EP have "departments" and they tend to be pretty unique. One will be so wildly different from another that they often are like different, smaller companies. So you might have an amazing experience at a big company that is nothing like the awful experience someone else has - just because you were on different teams.
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Enterprises tend to be way more forward thinking. You'll spend more time thinking about how things should be done and looking to the future rather than messing with tight budgets, reacting to problems, and trying to convince people of what will be good for them.
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Coming from someone who is making this very move I'll just drop my two cents. You're not going to be there forever, especially in this industry it's not often you'll find someone in the same spot for 3+ years at least in my experience. I'm looking at it from the perspective of exponential growth. There are some financial factors to consider as well, but even if you hated it and wanted to go back to the SMB, or start up your own support team, a years worth of experience will give you so much exposure and open so many doors I think it's worth the move. You also see how things are done successfully on a large scale, and will see the inefficiencies you could possibly avoid.
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@r3dpand4 said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
Coming from someone who is making this very move I'll just drop my two cents. You're not going to be there forever, especially in this industry it's not often you'll find someone in the same spot for 3+ years at least in my experience.
In the F100 you do. Quite commonly. And they promote from within. So finding people with decades at the same company is common. My team at the bank was about 80 people and the average was like twelve years!
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@scottalanmiller Geez well disregard that portion I suppose.
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@r3dpand4 said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
@scottalanmiller Geez well disregard that portion I suppose.
Smaller enterprises you might find high turn over, like in the SMB. But mostly it's the smaller ones less than the F100. The high turnover of IT is exacerbated the smaller that you get. It still exists far more in the top ranks moreso than other fields in those companies, but it really does slow down a lot. I know lots of people who've been in the same place for 20+ years and are perfectly happy and aren't looking anywhere. They started low and move up and keep getting promoted. There are so many steps on the ladders there, that they can keep moving up a little each year for decades and still be in the middle reaches of things.
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@scottalanmiller I could see that, one thing I will say is a lot of the issues I had with the employer I'm leaving are being addressed by my new one. There are also some special arrangements that are available to me that I'm interested in utilizing that's laid out on paper with HR, and I couldn't get anything to budge from the SMB where you might think there'd be more flexibility.
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@r3dpand4 said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
@scottalanmiller I could see that, one thing I will say is a lot of the issues I had with the employer I'm leaving are being addressed by my new one. There are also some special arrangements that are available to me that I'm interested in utilizing that's laid out on paper with HR, and I couldn't get anything to budge from the SMB where you might think there'd be more flexibility.
I've found that a lot. SMBs tend to actually be way less flexible compared to enterprises. Enterprises tend to be much more focused on their employee's, their quality of life, and running the business well. SMBs tend to be focused on the emotional needs of the owners to the exclusion of all else, including value of life and profits.
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I've found that a lot. SMBs tend to actually be way less flexible compared to enterprises. Enterprises tend to be much more focused on their employee's, their quality of life, and running the business well. SMBs tend to be focused on the emotional needs of the owners to the exclusion of all else, including value of life and profits.
Well said, almost like you've been doing this a while.
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After working Enterprise, I don't think I could ever go back to SMB. See @scottalanmiller first reply and that pretty much sums it up.
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@irj said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
After working Enterprise, I don't think I could ever go back to SMB. See @scottalanmiller first reply and that pretty much sums it up.
I've gone back and forth, but my SMB leaps are more and more into more eclectic stuff rather than normal SMB. SMB, overall, is a very tough game with low pay, high expectations, and little connection between value and compensation or even appreciation.
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@scottalanmiller Agreed, especially since you're to a greater degree surrounded by people who have absolutely no idea what it is that you do. Even management structures in SMB IT are rarely staffed by technical individuals or technically competent I should probably say. At least in my experience, the fewer people around me who think what I do is comparable to black magic the better.
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How are Enterprise IT positions advertised? Or does it tend to be 100% networking.
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@eddiejennings said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
How are Enterprise IT positions advertised? Or does it tend to be 100% networking.
Headhunters handle it a lot, as do real consulting firms. A lot is direct today, there are only 100 F100s, for example, you can apply directly. Knowing someone helps no matter where you are.
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I like Roche as a company, for example, though. And I subscribe to their internal job posting system so that they send me alerts for their Spanish and Swiss postings for IT management, in case I decide to be interested.
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@r3dpand4 said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
@scottalanmiller Agreed, especially since you're to a greater degree surrounded by people who have absolutely no idea what it is that you do. Even management structures in SMB IT are rarely staffed by technical individuals or technically competent I should probably say. At least in my experience, the fewer people around me who think what I do is comparable to black magic the better.
Which, I've found, is how they look at everything, so IT isn't special.
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@r3dpand4 said in Employment in the Enterprise compared to SMB:
@scottalanmiller Agreed, especially since you're to a greater degree surrounded by people who have absolutely no idea what it is that you do. Even management structures in SMB IT are rarely staffed by technical individuals or technically competent I should probably say. At least in my experience, the fewer people around me who think what I do is comparable to black magic the better.
